Software guru McAfee wants to return to United States

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Software guru John McAfee, fighting deportation from Guatemala to Belize to face questions about the slaying of a neighbor, said on Saturday he wants to return to the United States.“My goal is to get back to America as soon as possible,” McAfee, 67, said in a phone call to Reuters from the immigration facility where he is being held for illegally crossing the border to Guatemala...

Read More..

New Whitney Houston book recalls singer’s musical magic

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A new book on Whitney Houston by her early producer seeks to tell the story of the rise to stardom of the pop diva who died nine months ago.Emmy and Grammy-winning producer Narada Michael Walden, who produced many of Houston‘s early hits, like “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” appeared at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday to discuss the book and...

Read More..

Booze, smokes on agenda for quirky gov’t group

BELTSVILLE, Md. (AP) — Deep in a secure laboratory just outside Washington sits the federal government‘s heaviest smoker.It is a half-ton hulk of a machine, all brushed aluminum and gasping smoke holes, like a retrofit of equipment used on an Industrial Revolution production line. It can smoke 20 cigarettes at once and conclude which are unsafe because they are counterfeit and which are unsafe merely...

Read More..

Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

LONDON (AP) — It started out as a joke, but ended in tragedy.The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William‘s pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible.At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing...

Read More..

New iPad mini orders will be delivered in time for Christmas

...

Read More..

Viral rapper PSY apologizes for anti-US protests

South Korean rapper and Internet sensation PSY is apologizing to Americans for participating in anti-U.S. protests several years ago.Park Jae-sang, who performs as PSY, issued a statement Friday after reports surfaced that he had participated in concerts protesting the U.S. military presence in South Korea during the early stages of the Iraq war.At a 2004 concert, the “Gangnam Style” rapper performs...

Read More..

Twins have simultaneous and free hip replacements

BENSALEM, Pa. (AP) — To make the high school cheerleading team 40 years ago, twins Deborah and Sandra Fanelli performed an acrobatic move called “the flying splits.”The memory recently drew a rueful laugh from the once-active sisters, who in recent years have had trouble simply walking.Severe arthritis has nearly crippled Sandra, known as Sam, who uses a walker. Deb has relied on a cane.But on Friday,...

Read More..

‘Fiscal cliff’ woes could extend into 2014-BofA

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – If the United States goes off the “fiscal cliff” and stays there for too long, the economy could suffer into 2014, Bank of America Corp’s head of commercial banking says.Concern about the so-called fiscal cliff is already causing mid-sized businesses to pause activity and to issue special dividends ahead of possible tax increases, Laura Whitley said in an interview...

Read More..

No Grammy love for Justin Bieber, One Direction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Irate fans of Justin Bieber and boy band One Direction took to social media on Thursday to voice their outrage after being snubbed by the Grammys for a chance to win the biggest honors in the music industry.Indie-pop band fun and rapper Frank Ocean led the 2013 nominations, tying with The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z and Kanye West for six nods. But The Recording Academy...

Read More..

Actor Stephen Baldwin charged in NY tax case

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Actor Stephen Baldwin was charged Thursday with failing to pay New York state taxes for three years, amassing a $ 350,000 debt.Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said Baldwin, of Upper Grandview, skipped his taxes in 2008, 2009 and 2010.The youngest of the four acting Baldwin brothers pleaded not guilty at an arraignment and was freed without bail. His lawyer,...

Read More..

Amarin raises funding for heart drug, partnership worries pull down shares

(Reuters) – Biopharmaceutical company Amarin Corp Plc said it raised $ 100 million in non-equity financing that will help it form a sales force to launch its heart drug Vascepa, but disappointed investors hoping for a sale or partnership.Amarin shares fell 22 percent in extended trade, after closing at $ 11.95 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.“(Strategic) discussions are still quite active but at some point...

Read More..

Toronto mayor to stay in power pending appeal of ouster

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada’s biggest city, a court ruled on Wednesday.Madam Justice Gladys Pardu of the Ontario Divisional Court suspended a previous court ruling that said Ford should be ousted. Ford’s appeal of that ruling is set to be heard on January 7, but a...

Read More..

Negotiators see glimmers of progress on farm bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With a week left to act, agricultural leaders in Congress are still deadlocked on two major issues for a new U.S. farm bill, cuts in crop subsidies and reductions in food stamps, said two of the four key negotiators on Thursday.But the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees suggested that recent talks had yielded at least some progress.Without reauthorization,...

Read More..

U.S. agency backs Apple in essential patent battle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google unit Motorola Mobility is not entitled to ask a court to stop the sale of Apple iPhones and iPads that it says infringe on a patent that is essential to wireless technology, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.In June, Judge Richard Posner in Chicago threw out cases that Motorola, now owned by Google, and Apple had filed against each other claiming patent...

Read More..

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer dies, aged 104

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Oscar Niemeyer, a towering patriarch of modern architecture who shaped the look of modern Brazil and whose inventive, curved designs left their mark on cities worldwide, died late on Wednesday. He was 104.Niemeyer had been battling kidney ailments and pneumonia for nearly a month in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. His death was confirmed by a hospital spokesperson.Starting in...

Read More..

U.S. House Democrats introduce new meningitis legislation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation on Wednesday aimed at bolstering federal oversight of compounded drugs like the tainted steroid injections blamed for a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.But the legislation is not likely to move forward in the Republican-controlled chamber. In fact, aides from both parties said neither the...

Read More..

UK warned on debt ‘credibility’

5 December 2012 Last updated at 14:28 ETThe UK’s failure to meet a key public debt target “weakens the credibility” of its top AAA credit rating, the Fitch ratings agency has said.Debt will now not fall as a proportion of the country’s output until 2016-17, a year later than Chancellor George Osborne had targeted.Fitch said that the Autumn Statement confirmed the scale of the challenge facing the...

Read More..

Death toll from Philippine typhoon nears 300

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed nearly 300 people in the southern Philippines.Officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that were isolated by landslides,...

Read More..

iOS users generate double the Web traffic of Android users

According to the latest numbers from Chitika Insights, iOS users generate more than twice the amount of Web traffic as Android users. The six-month study found that while the two operating systems were nearly tied when it came to smartphone Web traffic, Apple (AAPL) has a substantial lead with its iPad tablet. Despite Android’s commanding share of the overall mobile market, the...

Read More..

Huston’s “Infrared” wins Bad Sex fiction prize

LONDON (AP) — It’s the prize no author wants to win.Award-winning novelist Nancy Huston won Britain’s Bad Sex in Fiction award Tuesday for her novel “Infrared,” whose tale of a photographer who takes pictures of her lovers during sex proved too revealing for the judges.The choice was announced by “Downton Abbey” actress Samantha Bond during a ceremony at the Naval & Military Club in London.Judges...

Read More..

HIV Epidemic in Latin America, Caribbean: Making Progress

Right before World AIDS Day 2012, a colorful exhibit was launched at the Pan American Health Organization‘s headquarters in Washington, D.C.Argentine artist Fabian Rios Rubino‘s United Colors of HIV, previously on display at the Embassy of Argentina, is a colorful acrylic mix, a veritable rainbow.It was inspired by a controversial 1991 United Colors of Benetton ad campaign showing AIDS activist David...

Read More..